


Little Complexities

by orphan_account



Series: Counted [6]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Cuddles, Cute, Domestic, Epilepsy, Established Relationship, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Morgan loves Reid, Seizure, Slash, Slight Slash, albeist comments, complex partial seizure, dvd, jj and spencer are pals, jj is cute, jj protects spence, morgan isn't there, morgan snogs reid, relationships, rossi is a dick, seizure disorder, snog, spencer has a seizure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 18:20:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3178412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Can you all stop looking at me like I'm going to gork out? I hate that you've seen my bad seizures, I'm embarrassed, so if you could all stop staring at me like you're still watching me pee myself and convulse on the floor that would be great."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Complexities

"Did you always know your mom was sick?" Derek asked, his voice husky with tiredness as he and Spencer lay reclined on the sofa with a DVD in the player and the den lights off. His eyes remained on the screen, really quite interested in the film as it played. The film had been Spencer's choice, of course - A Beautiful Mind.

His right hand was cupped against the side of his head as he leaned on the edge of the couch while the fingers of his left hand twisted through strands of Spencer's hair. 

Spencer hummed quietly, turning a little from his lounging position across Derek's chest. "I guess I did. I know it became more apparent the older I got - I don't know if her illness progressed or I just became more aware."

Derek considered a young Spencer for a while, devoted to his mom but ultimately helpless to prevent a deep-rooted mental illness from destroying her life if left unattended to. 

"D'you miss her?" He asked, scooping the side of Spencer's hair in his fingers, like a comb, and pulled it behind his ear smoothly. 

Spencer closed his eyes to the relaxing touches and gave Derek a small nod in quiet reply. "All the time." He said in a whisper after a while. 

"You scared it could happen to you?" Derek broached carefully.

"The fear is real sometimes." He nodded. They fell quiet, eyes on the tv. 

"Sit up." Derek patted Spencer's thigh and groaned at his protesting limbs as he tried to move when Spencer's weight lifted off him. 

Derek walked stiffly to the kitchen, returning a moment later with a bottle of beer and a glass of water for Spencer, along with his pill sorter with his evening medication. He handed the two to Spencer and sunk back into the couch beside him. Spencer set the glass and pill sorter onto the coffee table before them and relaxed back against Derek.

"Do you miss your dad?" Spencer asked after a quiet five minutes had clouded his thoughts with deep and meaningful images. 

The hand Derek had resting on Spencer's hip pulled him a little closer. "Yeah, man, every day." He answered, trying to sound adjusted. "It's why my job is important - every day I don't let those sons of bastards kill me or mess with my head is another day I do right by the life my dad had led, you know?" 

Spencer shifted, turning in Derek's arms to look at him properly. "I know." He nodded, taken aback by Derek's openness where usually all trust would have failed. 

Derek took a large mouthful of his beer and turned his focus back to the television. Spencer settled a moment after, tired eyes blinking slowly as he relaxed against Derek's side. 

And then Spencer woke to the sound of Derek's deep, settled breathing pattern beside him and the classical music of the dvd menu screen repeating itself on the television. They'd fallen asleep on the sofa and he had no idea what the time was. He sat awkwardly, aching down his side and tangled in Derek's limbs. He picked up Derek's cellphone from the table and checked the time: 02:40am. 

He rubbed his tired eyes with balled fists and sighed as he stretched his body out, groaning at the release of pressure on his curled muscles. He placed Derek's phone back down and reached for the tumbler of water and pill sorter. The accurate time to take his medication had long since passed but the idea of going without a levelled dose in his body made Spencer cringe. He tipped the two, oblong pills into his hand and tossed them into his mouth, swallowing them down with the lukewarm water effortlessly. 

He left the box and glass on the table and reached across, shaking Derek awake. "Hey," he spoke quietly. "Wake up - come to bed."

Derek stretched across the couch and groaned as his muscles tightened and relaxed again, "What time's it?"

"Gone two thirty." Spencer said, getting to his feet. 

Derek followed, his hands on Spencer's narrow hips as they walked in step with one another into the bedroom. They stopped just inside the door and Derek rested his chin into Spencer's shoulder, snaked his arms around his waist and kissed against his jaw. Spencer inclined his chin, allowing Derek to pepper kisses down his neck. 

"Hmmm." Spencer sighed and began to laugh. "I'm tired." He said quietly. "And as nice as this is, I kind of need to sleep."

Derek gave a mock growl against Spencer exposed flesh. "Okay." He pecked a final kiss on his cheek. "Into bed."

Derek disappeared into the en suite while Spencer stripped to his boxer shorts and tshirt. He pulled the duvet down and tucked himself into bed. By the time Derek emerged from the bathroom, Spencer's mouth was open and gentle snores escaped him. 

 

-*-*-*-*-*-

 

Spencer sat opposite Derek, as Hotch ran over the details of the case. The flight ahead promised to be a long one and fatigue was becoming a problem.

"Our unsub is clever." Hotch said certainly. "He's smart with the purposeful clues he's leaving behind, confident we'll follow them and be led in the wrong direction." He smirked, "He clearly knows nothing about my team." 

JJ smiled and winked mockingly at Derek. 

"Get familiar with the victims." Hotch sobered. "The sharper we are and more focused we remain, the sooner we can arrest the bastard."

Spencer reached out across the table for the paper file in front of Derek and scanned the crime scene photos inside: three brutally murdered children and their parents inside their home, a young girl dismembered in a secluded park and an elderly man decapitated. He shuddered. "Brutal." He looked up to Derek.

"Sick." Derek embellished. "He is one twisted S-O-B." 

Spencer looked back at the array of photographs then up at Derek again, "They're deliberately different signatures," he frowned. "Intentionally misleading the investigations."

"He probably thinks they wouldn't be linked together at the precinct." Derek supposed. 

"But why?" Spencer asked, animated, and pushed his hair from his face.

Derek snorted, "Cut it."

"What - my hair?" Spencer's brow furrowed deeply. "No." He shook his head tersely, firing the locks back into his face. Derek laughed deep in his throat and Spencer smiled at him as he rested back into the chair. He yawned and Derek frowned. 

"Tired?" He asked, taking a mouthful from his cup of coffee. Spencer nodded weakly and smiled at the childishness of his movements. "No movies tonight." Derek pointed an accusing finger at him. 

"Movie night?" Emily asked, enthusiastically. "I haven't had a movie night in forever, it'd be like a slumber party. We should, you know. All gather in one room, pizza and beer, go over the profiles but just kind of relax at the same time. Team bonding." 

"Might be a good idea," JJ added, surprising Derek a little. "We could do with a team hug, I think. Gideon's departure has kind of scattered us, and it'd be a good way to integrate Rossi."

"You mean allow him to get to grips with Reid's head?" Emily smirked and derek chuckled.

"Under the strict instructions we don't neglect to complete the profile, I don't see why it'd be a bad thing - no different to us getting dinner. What do you think, Hotch? Pizza and beer at the hotel tonight?" JJ looked to her boss.

From his paperwork, Hotch looked up. "Provided everyone is alert." He answered seriously. 

Spencer looked at Derek with mock dread and tweaked his mouth to the side. "Never open your mouth again." He warned.

 

-*-*-*-*-*-

 

Standing in the doorway of the bedroom in their small hotel suite, Derek knocked the open door. Spencer looked up, crime scene photographs of their new victim in his hands as he perched on the edge of the bed. "Put them away." Derek urged.

Spencer drew his mouth to one side and shrugged. "I can't work it out, why don't I know yet." 

Derek gave a sad sigh, "Sometimes you need more to go on." Derek seemed so calm, so accepting where Spencer failed to understand. "We are not robots, Spence." 

He walked closer to the bed and crouched down, kneeling before Spencer. He placed his hands over Spencer's and slowly eased the creased photos from his hands. Spencer let them go without protest. 

"I just wish I knew why, really why." Spencer's cheeks burned up as he spoke.

Derek cupped Spencer's face between his hands, leaving the pictures face down on the bed and spoke clearly. "Look at me; stop overthinking it. We will save the next, and the next."

Spencer stared into Derek's dark eyes. "I'm angry." He admitted.

Derek nodded. "I know." He leaned forward, pressing his forehead to Spencer's, then pushed their lips together lightly. 

Spencer inhaled deeply through this nose, opening his mouth to the welcomed kiss, and braced his hands on Derek's shoulders. Derek's fingers snaked across Spencer's face until his left hand held Spencer close and his right gripped into his hair, quickly turning the kiss passionate. 

Breathing heavily, Spencer broke the kiss and leaned his forehead back against Derek's. "Thank you."

"For what?" Derek asked, pushing his body forward until he was between Spencer's parted thighs.

"This." Spencer made a gesture between them and closed his eyes as he allowed Derek his affectionate kiss, parting his lips for deeper access as their movements began to quicken, desperately driven by an urge for closeness and touch. Though he wanted to pull Derek even closer, Spencer placed his palms against Derek's chest and reluctantly pushed him back. "We need to go to JJ and the others." He said, breathless and kiss bruised. 

Ten minutes later, Derek preceded Spencer down the hallway and knocked against the door to JJ's suite. After a moment, Prentiss pulled the door open with a smile. Derek held up the six pack of beer under his arm. "I brought goodies." He smiled and stepped into the room with Spencer close behind. 

Emily perched herself on the edge of the small sofa in JJ's room, drink in hand, as Derek set the six pack on the dresser beside a case Hotch has already bought and disappeared into the hallway to put in the call to the pizza delivery, already aware what he needed to order - years with people would easily engrave their likes and dislikes into your mind. In the corner of JJ's room, gathered around her small dining table, Rossi, Hotch and JJ were pawing over scattered photographs and print outs from Garcia.

"Reid, you not coming in?" Emily chuckled as Spencer stood just in the door, his fingers tugging at the hem of his shirt as frowned in the direction of the muted television and ran his tongue over his bottom lip. "Spencer?" At the tone of Emily's voice as she used Spencer's first name, everyone looked around. 

"Seizure." Hotch said, "He'll be okay in a minute." He glanced at his watch. 

Rossi watched with a deep frown. "Aaron, when you told me, I...I don't know what I expected - he works for the FBI with a seizure disorder?" 

"No." JJ said, "He works for the FBI with an insane IQ and no social skills." 

"Where's Morgan?" Emily asked, unable to take her eyes off Spencer as the strange seizure continued; his mouth moved in an odd twitch, his hands worked hard twisting and pulling the hem of his shirt and he made sucking sounds between bouts of sighing and huffing noises.

"Ordering dinner." Hotch replied, counting second forty-two on his watch. He put down his tumbler and walked across the room. He put his hand on Spencer's back. "Spencer?" 

Spencer blinked his eyes furiously, squeezing them tight then opening them wide, and made a loud sighing noise before swallowing deeply and turning his head to Hotchner. His hands stilled and dropped to his sides. He made a pained face and touched his hand to the side of his head. "Um - what?" 

"Take a seat, Reid." Hotch prompted as JJ pulled out a dining chair for him. Spencer sat down, walking as though his legs were heavy. Hotch kept his hand on the small his back until he was in the chair and looked up to the door as it clicked open. "Ah, Morgan. Spencer's had seizure." 

"So?" Derek said, his mind going through Spencer's absence and simple partial seizures. "He's fine. Right?" He glanced over Spencer's face quickly and the lithe man nodded his head. He looked fine, if a little confused.

"The fiddling thing." Emily asked bluntly, imitating Spencer's finger movements on her blouse. "That's different to what I've seen before."

Derek nodded his head, approaching Spencer. He rubbed his hand up and down Spencer's spine. "Yeah - look, they've been pretty easy to manage so far but on one occasion it generalised into a tonic clonic seizure. They're called complex partials, it's like the simple partials but takes away his lucidity." He looked at Spencer with a gentle smile. 

"I'm fine." Spencer assured, feeling watched. He got to his feet. "Can you all stop looking at me like I'm going to gork out? I hate that you've seen my bad seizures, I'm embarrassed, so if you could all stop staring at me like you're still watching me pee myself and convulse on the floor that would be great." He snapped, eyes focused on Emily. "I'm tired, I'm going to bed." He left the room with a stomp to his step, but Derek didn't follow. 

"Let it go." Derek waved his hand when Emily, JJ and Rossi fixed their gazes on him. "He's not fragile, you know? Give him a break." He opened himself a beer. "The new type seizures started recently, I think Gideon leaving has been the stressor. He's recently switched to new meds too, because of how often he was having the bigger seizures. He's tired and grumpy and you all look at him like he'll hit the deck any minute! Don't do that." 

Hotch took his cue from Derek. "Prentiss, any leads on the links between the latest victim and the previous attacks?" Emily approached the table as she handed over her information and the dynamic shifted, personal relationships faded and professional, group-centred and achievement-focused work minds pooled together to build the unsubs profile. For a moment, nobody missed Spencer, and then JJ considered that the one person who would read straight into the answer at that moment felt like he couldn't be around them. It hurt her, and she reached into her pocket for her cell as the group continued to build on their knowledge. She tapped out a small text: _I'm not staring Spence, and I still see you._


End file.
